


Bom the Bowtruckle Trouble

by moonchildleigh



Series: Boys With Magic [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, 방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Bowtruckle mischief, Care of Magical Creatures, First Kiss, M/M, Minor pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-28
Updated: 2017-04-28
Packaged: 2018-10-25 03:44:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10756047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moonchildleigh/pseuds/moonchildleigh
Summary: Taehyung has to watch over a Bowtruckle for Care of Magical Creatures, but for some reason, it always seems to want to run to Jimin.





	Bom the Bowtruckle Trouble

**Author's Note:**

> 봄: Bom - Korean word for Spring  
> 4th pairing! More to come!

The library was surprisingly empty, which Taehyung paid no mind to as he made his way to the ‘Magical Creatures’ section. He rounded the bookshelves, keeping a close hold on the breast pocket of his jumper. He skimmed the sections quickly, pushing back his bangs that flopped into his eyes on occasion. 

“B...b...b, right. Bow bow bow bow...are you kidding me? Nothing on Bowtruckles?”

“Whatcha looking for?” Taehyung started, one of the books his hand was on dropping to the dusty floor with a thud. He turned and caught sight of his friend Jimin propped up against one of the shelf ladders, a sizeable book on Graphorns in his hand. He let out a sigh before bending down to pick up the book, but before his fingers touched it, it was already levitating back to its spot on the shelf. 

“Please, don’t give me a heart attack. I’d prefer to graduate before I die. And if you must know, I’m looking for a book on Bowtruckles. I picked it for Care of Magical Creatures but there aren’t any books on them here apparently.” 

“Did you look through your copy of _Fantastic Beasts_? Thought they were in there? Also...did you know Graphornhide is stronger than Dragonhide? Isn’t that something...” Jimin didn’t look his way, instead flipping through the pages of the book in his hands with abandon. 

“Yeah, already did, and all Scamander wrote was ‘ _tree guardians, can gouge out eyeballs, likes presents_.’ It doesn’t help me in the slightest I don’t know how to take care of the thing.” As he spoke, the small green creature made a small chirping sound before it poked its head from his breast pocket. Jimin looked up at the noise and instantly cooed, slamming the book shut and sliding down the ladder. 

“How could something that adorable gouge out someone’s eyes? Wonder if he’ll understand Korean. Hey little guy, how are you? I’m Jimin.” 

“They have these long sharp twig-like things a-and stop talking to it. Earlier I tried to talk to it and it stuck me right in the palm.” But Jimin was already in range, and Taehyung’s heart stopped as it’s long arms emerged. It regarded Jimin with its small brown eyes, still chattering away. Jimin was close, close enough that Taehyung could feel his breath on his neck as he bent down to look the little green creature in the face.  

“You wouldn’t hurt anyone would you, no you wouldn’t that’s right.  Sweet little thing, you must be so cramped in that pocket huh?” Taehyung’s jaw dropped as the tiny thing...well...nodded, actually _nodded_ as Jimin spoke to it. The Bowtruckle crawled the rest of its way out of his pocket and before Taehyung could react it had settled itself comfortably on Jimin’s palm. Its tiny face gazed up into his and Jimin was smiling, a big, breathtaking smile and Taehyung looked fondly at his crooked tooth. 

“I can’t believe it just crawled onto your hand like that...just like that! It took me twenty minutes to get it to get into my pocket.” He grumbled as he watched Jimin stroke the thing and he pressed his palm to his face. 

“You just gotta be nice and calm with him is all. Seems to respond well to positivity.” Taehyung rolled his eyes, moving to look down the shelves again. “Have you talked to Yoongi hyung? I mean, if anyone knows how to take care of magical beasts it’s him. Besides, your professor probably removed all the books on individual creatures so it’d be more of a challenge. It’s a little tree spirit Tae, just keep it happy, give it water and bugs and take it outside every once in awhile. He won’t give you too much trouble, will you now, cute little thing.” He was stroking its chin. Taehyung sighed in defeat, pressing his forehead against the bookshelf.

~

“Come on Bom, please, stop running away from me! I’m trying to feed you! Do you know how hard these woodlice were to get?” Bowtruckles, Taehyung learned, were very nimble and fast. Especially ones that didn’t want to be caught. The little thing had made its way out of Hufflepuff Basement by leaping from student to student. Taehyung swore it stuck its tiny tongue out at him.

“Excuse me, um, pardon me. If I could just…” He reached out, but at the last second, the little troublemaker had moved onto someone else, someone else who was making their way out of the nook entrance. “No no no no no! Wait! Hey! Stop!” They’d already exited and he groaned, stashing the small jar of woodlice in the pocket of his robe before following. He looked around, scanning the kitchen corridor. There were tons of people making their way to and from the barrel entrance, and he couldn’t see the Bowtruckle anywhere. “I’ll never find him in this mess, it’s impossible.” He decided to push forward and try to catch the thing before it made its way to the Entrance Hall or worse: outside. 

Looking around he caught sight of Hoseok dressed in his Quidditch uniform talking with Hildegard Trot, one of the Hufflepuff Chasers. He made his way over to them slowly, watching as they burst into laughs before Hildegard gave him a wave and walked away. “Hoseok hyung,” he murmured, switching to English as he tapped on his shoulder, “can you help me?”

“‘Course, anything for you Tae Tae, what d’you need?” 

“Well, I’m taking care of this Bowtruckle for Care of Magical Creatures and I was trying to feed it but it ran away from me and got out of the common room and now I don’t know where it is and I need help.”

“Slow down, fam. I’m heading to practice in a few but I’ll keep an eye out, yeah? You’ll find it, don’t worry!”

~

He didn’t find it. It’d been almost an hour since the Bowtruckle had escaped the Common Room and Taehyung had made his way through the majority of the ground level of the castle. He’d even gone by the Greenhouse to see if maybe Bom had made his way there, but no luck. He was making his way back, passing under the bell towers when he heard a laugh. A high melodious laugh with little squeaks here and there. He turned the corner and saw… 

“Jimin! You found Bom!” He exclaimed, moving to sit down next to his pink-haired friend. Jimin beamed at him, reaching his hand out and giggling again when the Bowtruckle grabbed hold of his thumb and dangled upside down. 

“Yeah, I was leaving the dungeon when he hopped right on my robe. I went looking for you but couldn’t find you, so we sat here for a break. How’d you lose the little guy anyways? And ‘Bom’? Nice.” Said Bowtruckle finally noticed Taehyung’s presence and gave him a once-over before returning to climbing over Jimin’s fingers. 

“I was trying to feed him back in the dorms, but he just- ran away. He’s got an attitude problem.” As he spoke the tiny creature stood up straight in Jimin’s palm, little hands resting on its hips as it sent Taehyung a glare. He glared back. 

“Now, now, Tae. You gotta be nice to him.” 

“I was being nice! Do you know how _hard_ it was to get woodlice? I had to beg Professor Sprout practically on my _knees_ because she’d been saving them for something special, whatever special activity calls for woodlice, and when I tried to feed him, he stuck me and ran off!” Jimin held out his free hand and raised his eyebrow. Taehyung fetched the small glass container of the insects from his pocket with a grumble and passed them to Jimin, who then lowered both the Bowtruckle and container to the ground. He flipped open the lid and instantly the tree guardian began trapping the woodlice between its sharp fingers, passing them to its awaiting mouth. 

“Ugh! I don’t believe this! Why is it so good around you?” Taehyung growled, flopping onto his back. He gazed up at the wooden roof covering, hoping he could catch it on fire with his stare. He felt movement and all of a sudden Jimin was lying on his side, regarding Taehyung with a soft expression. “I’m usually so good with animals, Chim, I’m top of my class! Why can’t I take care of one tiny twig.” Bom chattered at the name and Jimin chuckled, tapping Taehyung’s nose. 

“It’s only been one day Tae, just one. You’ll get better at it.” 

“One day and I lost him.” 

“Only for an hour, and he was perfectly safe! Now, look at him, chomping away on some disgusting bugs. Did he have water today?” Taehyung was still frowning, but he nodded. “See! You’re not doing that bad.” 

“Okay… yeah, but… animals love me! I had no trouble with the Hippogriff a few weeks ago, and the Mooncalves from last week! They weren’t even remotely scared of me.” 

“But this isn’t an animal Tae, it’s a Bowtruckle, a tree guardian. They’re different. You’re a sweetie, really. Maybe it’s just… picky? Maybe it’s stubborn because you’re the one taking care of it. It’ll warm up to you, I know it.” Taehyung still felt doubtful, and he wrung his wrists as he took in Jimin’s words. He looked over at him and started a little when he saw his friend staring right back, sweet smile still on his face. Taehyung felt his heart start thumping in his chest and he gulped. He sat up straight, watching Bom still chowing away. He chewed on his bottom lip in thought, before shifting closer to the tiny thing. He gently held out his hand. Bom stopped chewing for a moment, woodlouse trapped in his hand as he eyed the wizard warily. Taehyung took a deep breath before making his face as inviting as he could.

“Hey Bom, I’m happy you’re enjoying your food. Do you wanna go back inside with me and Jimin? I can get you some more water.” He promised calmly, finishing off with a boxy smile. He held his breath as he watched Bom finish chewing and swallow. It blinked for a moment before shoving the last woodlouse in its mouth and stepping onto Taehyung’s outstretched hand. It didn’t make a move to stick him, and its little green body was relaxed. Taehyung clenched his teeth in excitement and looked at Jimin, eyes wide. Jimin covered his mouth with his hands as he tried holding in his laughter.

“If we were in an anime, your eyes would be shining right now.” 

 ~

The next couple days Taehyung and Bom bonded well. The Bowtruckle didn’t stick or scratch him, and he didn’t run away either. He spent his time in Taehyung’s robe pocket and ate his insects while Taehyung was in lectures. When Taehyung had the time he’d take the Bowtruckle to the Greenhouse where it liked spending time playing with the others. All he had to do was make sure he spoke calmly to it and gave it its positive reinforcement every once in awhile. He’d talk to it all the time, especially when he’d go to the courtyard or library to do his schoolwork. Mostly just nonsense stuff, about how hard his work was, or occasional rumors he’d hear around. Try to hear, at least. His English was still iffy, but after a year of being enrolled, he was much better at it than Jimin. Jungkook, of course, was almost fluent, and he’d grumble about that sometimes with the creature. Most of the time though, he talked about Jimin. Jimin was his closest friend from Mahoutokoro, not excluding Jungkook of course. They’d been inseparable there, learning all the same spells together, teaching each other how to fly brooms. Jimin even helped him perfect his defensive spells and wandless magic, those of which he excelled greatly at. 

“He’s going to train to be an Auror with Jungkook, that's a Dark Wizard catcher,” Taehyung was droning, writing down the ingredients he needed for his potions class, “they’re really great. I just want a spot in the government somewhere. We haven’t decided where we wanted to go, whether it’s the Ministry here, or the Japanese Ministry, or MACUSA. That’s the Magical Congress of the United States of America. Between you and I, I doubt Jimin’ll want to work in America.” He chuckled to himself as he finished up, packing away all his things before turning to Bom. But the Bowtruckle wasn’t playing in the grass where’d he’d been. In fact, he wasn’t anywhere. “Bom? Bom! Where’d you go?” He slowly started to panic, eyes searching the ground frantically. He couldn’t see movement in the area of grass so he gathered all his things quickly and scoured the whole courtyard, calling after the tiny thing. He felt a little angry but he tried to stamp it down. He couldn’t be angry when he found Bom. He’d made good progress over the week and wouldn’t get stressed over it. Maybe he just saw something that caught his eye. 

He walked through the Entrance Hall slowly, scanning the floor and some of the people passing by. The hall wasn’t horribly full, as it was close to evening and the majority of the castle was getting ready for dinner. He passed a group of people and asked if they’d seen Bom around. They informed they hadn’t and he thanked them before moving on. He thought about the last time Bom ran away, and before long he found himself turning down the corridor to the dungeons. He just stayed at the entrance, not wanting anyone to think he was trying to snoop around and find the passage to get into the Common Room. He got a few stares, but no one bothered him. He waited maybe ten minutes before familiar pink and blonde heads walked up the dreary steps. When Jimin spotted him he flashed him a knowing grin and Taehyung blushed a bit and coughed.

“Tae! Good to see you, looking for somebody?”

~

“I just don’t get why he always comes to you. Always!”

“Maybe he has a crush on me.” Jimin joked, popping a watermelon stripe out of the pack they’d gotten from Jungkook in his mouth with a sly grin. Taehyung punched him in the arm, stealing a candy from him. Bom crawled onto his lap, eyes widening. 

“Are you really giving me puppy dog eyes right now?” 

“Can Bowtruckles have candy?” 

“Not sure, don’t really wanna risk it. Give him a fairy egg, they make him really happy.” 

“They in your bag?” 

“Yeah.” Taehyung stroked down Bom’s back as he waited. They were sat on the hill facing the Forbidden Forest, a spread of candies and two bottles of Gillywater and Pumpkin Juice in front of them. They still didn’t know how Jungkook managed to sneak in all the sweets, but they didn’t question it. Jimin passed the egg to Bom, and the Bowtruckle stood straight up. Its eyes were wide and it looked up at Jimin with an awed expression. 

“Yes, yes, that’s for you, little fool. He always gets like that when you feed him those?” Taehyung set him down on the grass and nodded, popping open the bottle of Pumpkin Juice and taking a swig. Jimin held his hand out for it and they sat in comfortable silence, listening to the quiet sounds of Bom chattering and eating. The sun wouldn’t start setting for another hour so and all their work for the week was finished. Taehyung started digging into the chocolates when Jimin turned to him. 

“Why… why do you think he likes me so much? I’m not the one who takes care of him. Pass me one of those.” 

“Not sure,” Taehyung answered with a frown, popping a chocolate skeleton in Jimin’s open mouth, “you’re like… I don’t know, everyone likes you, you know? Like you’re just… well- you’re you.” He felt his neck heating up and turned his attention to the forest ahead of them. He missed Jimin’s smile.

“I’m me? What’s me?” He teased, scooting closer. Taehyung laughed, scratching the back of his neck. 

“W-what I mean is, you’re just… really cool, a-and sweet, and you’ve got cool hair. You’re super talented, and you’re really um…” 

“Really what?” He was super close now, their hands almost touching. Taehyung’s flush was spreading from his neck up to his ears and face. 

“Really… well, you’re really kinda pretty. Really pretty.” His face felt super hot and his fingers were pulling at the blanket underneath them. He couldn’t look at Jimin, he couldn’t. He looked at Bom instead, watching as he finished up his food and turned to look up at him. He moved between the two of them, and they felt his sharp fingers pulling on theirs. They looked down at the same time to see the creature pulling their hands together. Taehyung’s fingers tingled where they touched, and he breathed, chest heaving as he finally looked up at Jimin’s face. The other was super close, lips pulled back over his teeth. Taehyung stared at his one crooked tooth. 

“Really pretty, huh?” He repeated with another flirtatious smile. Taehyung gulped before he looked up into his eyes. They were a deep brown, his favorite brown.  “I think you’re really pretty too.” He gripped Taehyung’s hand, clutching their fingers together. Before Taehyung could answer a warm pair of plump lips pressed against his. His eyes shot open, embarrassing noise bubbling up from the back of his throat. He felt Jimin’s hand slide up and cup the back of his head, pulling him closer. His eyes finally slipped shut but it ended quick, and he felt himself leaning forward to chase after Jimin. Jimin’s lovely giggle made his eyes open, and he stared at him with what was probably the most foolish expression he could imagine. Bom was chattering between them and when they looked down at him, he was still holding onto their hands. 

“Well… now I guess we know why he was always chasing after me.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed!


End file.
